Chang, Courier Look To Make The Dust Fly

U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships

The Ex-french Open Champs Seek To Get Their Games Back In Top Form At The U.s. Men's Clay Court Championships.

April 19, 1998|By Javier Solano of The Sentinel Staff

Fending off injuries and a new wave of tennis stars ready to supplant them, Michael Chang and Jim Courier now return to the dirt surface that slid them into stardom, charging into the clay-court season with next month's French Open in mind.

Their arrival is good news for Disney, rallying around an American duo that won the Grand Slam tournament in Paris three times between 1989-92.

Otherwise, the draw is mostly starless for the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships, set from Monday through Sunday at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex.

Beyond Chang, the tournament's defending champion and No.13 on the ATP Tour heading into this week's rankings, the only other top-50 players entered are Jason Stoltenberg (37) and Chris Woodruff (41), two returning semifinalists.

The depleted field is through no fault of Disney, which is competing on the schedule against Monte Carlo. That is one of the ATP Tour's top nine tournaments, known as the Super 9, and offers more than twice as many ATP points and almost eight times the purse ($2.45 million).

All of the top 10 players except No. 1 Marcelo Rios are in Monte Carlo this week after No.2 Pete Sampras, who recently moved to Orlando, took a wild-card berth into the tournament. Sampras will headline next week's clay-court AT&T Challenge in Atlanta, which also only has three top-50 players entered in that tournament.

Relief for Disney, host of the U.S. Clay Court Championships through 2001, might come with the ATP's expanded clay-court schedule in the United States - which is proposed for the year 2000 -or by word of mouth.

``As we grow the event, the field will grow,'' tournament director Steve Daugherty said. ``The players that participated last year raved about the V.I.P. treatment they got and the things to do at Disney.''

The kaleidoscope of entertainment at Disney is ultimately its trump card, to be played face up this week.

Among other events, the Wide World of Sports staff has converted some of its field space into a putting green and prepared a Wednesday evening softball game for the tennis pros at the complex.

An avid fisher in his Washington state home off Puget Sound, Chang, for one, likes it here.

``It is actually pretty exciting to be able to go back to an event where you are the defending champion ... particularly over at Disney,'' said Chang, a five-time winner in 1997 who closed the ATP season ranked No.3.

``We had such a great time there last year. The facility there is pretty unbelievable, pretty impressive.''

The tournament is set to begin Monday with 32 singles players and 16 doubles teams chasing a $315,000 purse and one of the nation's oldest tennis crowns (1910), second to the U.S. Open.

The bracket was set late Saturday, to be filled in after today's qualifying from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Play will spread across three courts, the 3,200-capacity Stadium Court and Grandstands 1 and 2, each with bleacher seating for 250. Fans will be treated to three-set tests of endurance on the pace-dampening surface, slower than the hard courts and the bane of most serve-and-volleyers.

``It requires a certain amount of patience and a completely different mental approach, playing on clay,'' said Stoltenberg, an Australian who, like Courier, is one of a growing number of ATP Tour pros now living part time in Orlando.

``Some players don't enjoy that. On clay, sometimes you can dig yourself out of some messes if you're willing to hang around long enough.''

The soft clay at Disney, barely a year old and still maturing, will get better and firmer with age. Chang and Courier, both mending from injuries, hope their games do the same.

Chang, 9-5 so far this season, has pulled out of three tournaments after straining his right knee last month at the Newsweek Champions Cup in Indian Wells, Calif. Since then, he has gone 2-2 on a two-week Asian swing, losing first- and third-round matches at Hong Kong and the Japan Open.

``It is definitely getting better,'' said Chang, who won the 1989 French Open at age 17. ``For some reason, ligaments take a little bit longer to heal than, say, muscles do. ... I am trying to be wise about it.''

After a run of five years in the top 10, including seven Grand Slam finals and four titles between 1991-93, Courier has dropped out of the top 20 in the past two injury-plagued seasons.

He still won three tournaments in 1997 - the Qatar Open in Doha, the Infiniti Open in Los Angeles and Beijing Open in China - keeping mostly quiet about the pain in his right shoulder.

So far in 1998, Courier is 5-6 and ranked No. 55.

He is surging, however, after a great stand at the Davis Cup three weeks ago, playing two five-set matches and sending the United States past Russia, 3-2, in the last one.

Tests on his shoulder were inconclusive, but he has been almost free of pain for two months.